April 21, 2010
In a move that seemed to surprise no-one except Lakeport workers, Labatt has announced that it is closing the Lakeport Brewery in Hamilton. Shaking up the market and selling beer for closer to what it should cost made Lakeport a great story. Like Napster, Lakeport offered an alternative at a cheaper price. And like Napster, it was only a matter of time before the big money saw the threat and took control back. Considering the due diligence that Labatt would no doubt have undertaken, this plant was likely slated to close about 9 minutes after the acquisition was finalized. So now we’ll have to wait and see if it is the end of buck-a-beer or an opening for another upstart. It might be nice to see more micro-brewery action in Canada. All we can do is crack open a cold one and watch the show.
October 7, 2009
That doggy’s tail just keeps on getting bigger…
That’s why I get out of bed every morning, well one of the reasons. What a great time to be in marketing. Just when the big brand players recognized consumers were wagging their tails at those mass linear ad campaigns and demanding more choice, more features and more value – along comes the internet. Yes, I used the word “internet”, it really is an ugly word – hey, just in time for the remake of Tron! But as a creative marketer, I’m all for choice, and now we have choice; choice in how we connect with those media savvy ravaging chawa-was we call consumers (I’m secretly a consumer too, but don’t tell anyone). I love the idea of being able to launch a product or service online through social media. Why shouldn’t they have a say, after all they’ll determine if the brand stays or goes to the dogs. Now I can interact in a two-way dialogue with consumers, post a social media campaign, collect creative expressions of the brand, target the very consumer I want to engage and create massive offline and online buzz. I say, let the internet run free, let the consumers become the dog and let us creative brand marketing pros watch the world spin from the comfort of our beds, after all isn’t that what my BlackBerry’s for?